Written question asked by Liam Fox (Conservative) on Wednesday, 19 April 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 24 April 2006. It was answered by Adam Ingram (Labour) on Tuesday, 25 April 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Casualty Evacuation

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many casualty evacuations there have been from (a) Iraq since the start of Operation Telic and (b) Afghanistan since 2001.

Answer: The latest Aeromed figures for Operation telic are published on the MOD website.For the period between March 2003 to 1 January 2006, up to 4,000 UK military and civilian personnel (including a small number of Iraqis) were medically evacuated from Iraq. For the period between 1 January 2006 and 28 February 2006, 133 UK military and civilian personnel were medically evacuated from Iraq.The great majority of these cases were due to illness, accidental injury, routine outpatient treatment in the UK or for compassionate reasons and not as a result of hostile action.Since 2001, there have been 33 aeromedical evacuations from Afghanistan. The great majority of these cases were due to illness, accidental injury, routine outpatient treatment in the UK or for compassionate reasons and not as a result of hostile action.

Secondary information